First Light for Planet Hunter ExTrA at La Silla A new national facility at ESO’s La Silla Observatory has successfully made its first observations. The ExTrA telescopes will search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars. …

Spanning Disciplines in the Search for Life Beyond Earth The search for life beyond Earth is riding a surge of creativity and innovation. Following a gold rush of exoplanet discovery over the past two decades, it is time to …

A JPL CubeSat named ASTERIA was deployed from the International Space Station on November 21. It will test the use of CubeSats for astronomy research. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech JPL Deploys a CubeSat for Astronomy Tiny satellites called CubeSats have …

This cartoon explains why the reported sizes of some exoplanets may need to be revised in cases where there is a second star in the system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Hidden Stars May Make Planets Appear Smaller In the search for …

Click for a full size image Researchers advocate statistical approach to search for Earth-like planets Proposal touts value of broader, less detailed studies of exoplanets By Steve Koppes A team of astronomers at the University of Chicago and Grinnell …

Illustration shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances. Illustration byNASA/JPL-Caltech Click for a full size image Recently discovered solar system could seed life between adjacent …

An artist’s impression of some of the thousands of exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. NASA/JPL Click for a full size image Exoplanet discovery by an amateur astronomer shows the power of citizen science You don’t need to …

seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Click for a full size image NASA Telescope Reveals Largest Batch of Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Star NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets …

HIP68468, a twin star to the sun about 300 light-years away, may have swallowed one or more of its planets, based on lithium and refractory elements recently discovered near its surface. Illustration byGabi Perez / Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias …

Click for a full size image Hot Jupiters are exoplanets that orbit their stars so tightly that their temperatures are extremely high, reaching over 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit (1600 Kelvin). They are also tidally locked, so one side of the planet …

Comparing Jupiter with Jupiter-like planets that orbit other stars can teach us about those distant worlds, and reveal new insights about our own solar system’s formation and evolution. (Illustration) Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Click for a full size image Jupiter’s Extended Family? …

The ruddy hue of our moon in a total lunar eclipse. Shutterstock/Chris Collins Click for a full size image It’s all in the atmosphere: exploring planets orbiting distant stars The second of a two part series that looks at what …

An artist’s impression of the polar orbit of WASP-79b. ESO/B Addison, CC BY-NC Click for a full size image It’s all in the rotation: exploring planets orbiting distant stars With the discovery so far of more than 3,300 planets orbiting …

Some of the Earth’s fault lines between tectonic plates in the East Asia region. Shutterstock /Mopic Click for a full size image Does a planet need plate tectonics to develop life? Plate tectonics may be a phase in the evolution …

Interesting things might happen on a hot, rocky exoplanet if a magma ocean is in equilibrium with a steam atmosphere, especially if part of the atmosphere escapes, taking with it volatilized rocky elements. NASA Click for a full size image …

In the Exoplanet Era, we are learning that planets abound in the cosmos. ESO/M. Kornmesser Click for a full size image How to find an exoplanet (part 2) The search for planets around other star systems has been going on …

In the Exoplanet Era, we are learning that planets abound in the cosmos. ESO/M. Kornmesser Click for a full size image How to find an exoplanet (part 1) The search for planets around other star systems has been going on …

Hot Jupiters, exoplanets around the same size as Jupiter that orbit very closely to their stars, often have cloud or haze layers in their atmospheres. This may prevent space telescopes from detecting atmospheric water that lies beneath the clouds, according …

Artist’s rendition of one of the billions of rocky exoplanets in our galaxy. Did life once exist on its surface? NASA/JPL-Caltech Click for a full size image Alien life on most exoplanets dies young Astronomers have found a plethora of …